


a friendship as old as the universe

by kiwideviant



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationship, Angst, Friendship, Gen, Oneshot, Other, Thoschei, doctor who - Freeform, takes place between season 12 and 13
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:15:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26536396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiwideviant/pseuds/kiwideviant
Summary: The Master may be gone, but he will never leave the Doctor alone. After all, they have too much history together.
Relationships: The Doctor & The Master (Doctor Who), Thirteenth Doctor & The Master (Dhawan)
Kudos: 7





	a friendship as old as the universe

“Run!” The young gallifreyan boy yelled out in the middle of a fiery landscape, washed over with the scarlet of the setting sun.

The slightly older boy who was with him, the one more responsible—the one often called too soft by his more raucous best friend—ran alongside the chaotic dark-haired boy. They ran but they laughed together, playing while the landscape burned red among them.

It was the younger boy who exhausted himself first. He was a terrible runner, though never admitted it to himself.

“You’re eaten! You have been swallowed whole by the monster!” The older boy continued to run, though stopped himself short so his friend could catch up.

“No!” The young boy protested, his dark hair gleaming with sweat that made it stick to his forehead. “No, it...” he huffed, hands resting on his knees. “It is too afraid to eat me!”

“Too afraid? Afraid of you?” The boy giggled as the silly thought.

The younger boy stood straight. “Yes!” He spoke as though he was commanding someone. “I am its master! And I order the monster to eat you!” He pointed at his friend.

The older boy looked past his friend as though staring directly in the eyes of a beast. And he ran, chased by the invisible monster. A cat and mouse game played on a fire-ridden beach along the sea.

Then the boy tripped, and he was the one who was eaten whole.

When his friend caught up, they rested by the shore. The sight of the sea burning as the sun dipped into the horizon was one the two children rarely ever saw.

The younger boy spoke first. “It is beautiful.”

“It is... terrifying.” The older one added.

“The sea?”

“The monster.”

“You do not know monsters.” The young boy chuckled and pushed his long dark locks out of his face.

“I have seen them. In my dreams. I saw...” he paused, unsure of whether to continue at the cost of being teased. “I saw a lady.”

“Ladies can be scary. Like my mother. She can be very scary.”

“But this lady... she was covered in veils and I could not see her face. She was dead. Flies swarmed around her because of the heat.”

“Oh.” The younger boy was quiet. But only for a moment. “How did she die?”

He shook his head. “Do not know. But I keep having nightmares about her. She gets closer and closer to me, slowly, until I swear I can feel her cold breaths. Then I wake up.” He never talked to his friend about his nightmares, but for some reason the boy felt now was the right time. Nobody knew about his nightmares. He just wanted someone to know his fears.

The older boy continued. “I tried asking her what she wanted, last time I saw her.”

“What did she say?”

“Nothing, but...” he began digging at the sand, rethinking what he had told his friend, “I think she wants help. Perhaps she is not a monster at all.”

“Come on, you cannot actually believe that, can you? Monsters do not need help.”

The older boy stayed quiet.

“I bet she is just waiting for you to fall asleep tonight so she can eat your soul.” The younger poked at his friend’s chest, but the older one did not seem to like his joke. “Why are you afraid? It is just a nightmare. And if she is real, then I can help you kill her, and then she cannot bother you anymore.”

The younger boy stood, and the moment they had together was lost. The older boy did not want to kill the veiled lady. He wanted to help her, but he would never say that to his friend. He soon got up as well and they continued running, still believing they would be friends all across time and space. Back then nothing could stop them.

-   
  


The Doctor finally sits for the first time in hours. If there was a way to escape this prison, she would have found it by now. But, after today, she is convinced luck is not on her side. Perhaps she can talk to herself to pass the time, as usual.

Opening her mouth, she breathes in to speak, but nothing comes out. With absolutely nothing to say, her lips close. Her head falls back on the wall behind her. The empty surroundings serve nothing to cure her of her boredom.

There is a pit in her stomach, and it has not gone away since she left her friends to visit her razed home planet with the Master. Only now does she notice it’s there. It’s a deep empty feeling. A void that only her friends can fill.

She likes people now, she realizes. This face misses people. A lot.

She misses Yaz, and Ryan, and Graham. She misses Captain Jack Harkness. She nearly laughs at what he would say if he learned that.

_ “I knew you did. Nobody can forget this handsome face.” _

She misses—

She winces at the thought, trying to block it from her mind. She thinks of the sunset rays and the burning sea but she refuses to think of him again. It brings her pain in her hearts to think of him, a deep regret that never goes away. She misses him, though, even after all that he’s done.

The heavy darkness that lies in her stomach is there, above all else, because of the Master.

And for the first time in several millenia, they sit together. However, this time, they sit across from one another.

“I’m dead, aren’t I? How can you miss someone so bad who isn’t even alive?” His voice is mocking and a small smile rests on his face.

The Doctor shakes her head. “I can’t be sure—“

“Of what? That I’m dead?”

“I didn’t see you die.”

“Trust me, Doctor. There is no one left alive on Gallifrey. I’ve survived a lot, but not this time. No, this time I’m gone for—“

“You always come back.” Her voice does not falter. It is heated with the embers of anger, of passion. Even so, tears prick in her eyes.

“Sounds like you miss me. You want me to have survived the death particle. You want me to be out there, somewhere in the universe, waiting for you to find me again. Is that it?” The Master’s eyes gleam. He doesn’t need the Doctor to answer. He already knows he is right.

The Doctor stands before any tears fall from her eyes. Determined to get out of this prison, she paces the room once again. Whether this new feeling sprouted because of the Master or in spite of him doesn’t matter. She will see her friends again.

The Master, or her visual representation of him, or hallucination—whatever it is, he remains. He watches her pace, glancing out of the window each time she passes it. She never looks at him, though, treating him like what he is—a ghost.

“You can’t avoid me forever.”

She can. She’s not listening to him, though.

“Yeah, you can pretend I’m not here, that you’re not thinking of me right now. But you have to face me eventually.”

She passes the window once more, and stops. Then she stares out of it, as though looking for something. Judoon spaceships fly past occasionally. There must be trial for her or something. That’s how that works, right?

“Wrong. The Judoon,  _oh_ , they could not care less about fairness. Fairness to them is fairness to all. At least, it is in their eyes.” His voice gradually gets closer. “They say you’re guilty, then you’re guilty.” Her hands, which are leaning on the window, tighten into fists. She is not listening to him. “And I bet you’re feeling  _really_ guilty right about now.”

She whips her head around at the voice in her ear. The space is bare, and she is alone. The last of the timelords will forever be alone.


End file.
